LOS ANGELES — Gov. Jerry Brown did not even make a campaign stop until nine days before the election. He did not air any commercials for his own candidacy, even as he amassed more than $20 million in campaign funds. And yet, in an election in which so many Democratic incumbents came to woe, he easily defeated his Republican opponent, a businessman named Neel Kashkari, and glided into an unprecedented fourth term as governor with 58.6 percent of the vote.

Now, 40 years after he was first elected governor of California, Mr. Brown, 76, will begin what will almost certainly be his last term in public office, and the question will be what he intends to do with his power. In an interview Wednesday, he emphasized the importance of fiscal restraint, which has long been one of his biggest points of pride, and which he seems to want to turn into his permanent legacy for California: After years in which the state lurched from one budget crisis to another, Mr. Brown and the Legislature have managed to pass a succession of on-time balanced budgets.

“Living within our means is a heroic continuing battle here,” Mr. Brown said by phone. “We have pressure in every sector to spend more. I’m riding the tiger out here. Everyone says: Why don’t you add five more programs? What else can you think up? Medicaid spending alone is about $90 billion — that’s bigger than the economy of some states.”

The money and political capital Mr. Brown spent during the election was devoted almost entirely to the two ballot propositions, both of which passed. One, meant to prevent huge state deficits, will establish a “rainy day fund” for unanticipated expenses; the other, aimed at the state’s severe and lingering drought, called for a $7.5 billion bond for water projects. Both measures will impose changes that may be felt for generations.

As for his next term, Mr. Brown said he would continue to press to build a high-speed train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as for more initiatives to battle climate change. But he appears most focused on maintaining his reputation as a fiscal hawk, even as he faces pressures from those within his own party to expand state programs.

Trying to hold back his fellow Democrats from spending more freely could be one of the key challenges of Mr. Brown’s fourth term. As the state has slowly but steadily built back reserves, Democratic leaders in both houses have pushed to increase spending on social service programs, even as they said they supported Mr. Brown’s instinct of restraint.

One important example of the pressures legislators are likely to face came Thursday, as Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California system, said she would propose raising tuition 5 percent annually for the next five years unless the system received more money from the state.

Despite the dominance of Democrats here, there were signs of renewed Republican energy in this week’s elections as the Democrats lost their two-thirds supermajorities in both the State Assembly and Senate.

While Republicans have seen registration numbers fall to record lows, Democratic incumbents lost to Republican candidates in a handful of races for the Legislature, and Republicans may also pick up as many as four seats in Congress.

Jim Brulte, the chairman of the State Republican Party, said he viewed the legislative gains as an important sign that the party was rebuilding itself.

“We basically had been a party in decline for 30 years, but last night we beat incumbents in the Legislature, something that had not happened since 1994,” Mr. Brulte said Wednesday. “The notion that the Republican wave stops at our border was simply not the case.”

Budgets and legislation require only a simple majority vote in the Legislature, but two-thirds approval is necessary to raise taxes, something the governor does not appear eager to do.

Still, Mr. Brown could once again turn to voters to ask for a tax increase or some sort of overhaul of state taxes, which rely heavily on capital gains receipts. He has suggested he could use some of the millions left over in his re-election war chest to promote ballot initiatives.

“There is a sense of getting things done here, and we have a consensus around that,” Mr. Brown said. “California was viewed by everybody as a failed state just five years ago; there was a specter of the state floundering. But now we’re back on an even keel, and that gives a more positive mood in the electorate here.”

Mr. Brown has long relished holding up California — and himself — as an example to Democrats across the country, rarely more so than after this election.

“We’re not caught up in the backbiting of Washington,” Mr. Brown said. “We’re more remote from internecine warfare from the parties.”

Also on Tuesday, Californians approved a ballot measure that will significantly change the way crimes are punished, turning several lower-level nonviolent felonies into misdemeanors that require brief stays in jail, not state prison time.

Under the new law, possession of several kinds of illicit drugs, including heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines, will be considered a misdemeanor.

Voters rejected a proposal that would have raised the limit of medical malpractice payments and required drug testing for doctors.

They also turned aside a measure that would have allowed the state insurance commissioner to stop health insurance rate increases deemed excessive.

In the battle for the state schools superintendent, the tightest and most expensive race for statewide office, the incumbent backed by the teachers’ unions, Tom Torlakson, held off a challenge from Marshall Tuck, who had attracted support from around the country among people who support charter schools and seek fewer restrictions on the ways teachers are hired and fired.

In Berkeley, voters approved a measure to tax sugary drinks, but a similar measure was defeated in San Francisco, where it needed two-thirds support to pass. While the soft-drink industry had worked hard to thwart both measures, public health officials argued in favor of the tax, which is meant to dampen consumption.

“We’re back to where we were in the mid-2000s, when the rest of country is veering to the right,” said Bruce Cain, a professor of political science at Stanford University. “We’re going to forge our own path and not worry very much about whether it’s consistent with what Washington is doing.”

And even as Mr. Brown enters what most people expect will be the twilight of his career, he has so far refused to acknowledge anything of the sort. “It would be depressing to think in those terms,” he said. “My grandmother lived to be 96. I see a wide field up ahead.”

Correction:

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the value of a bond for water projects in California. It is $7.5 billion, not million.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Brown to Start 4th California Term With Pledge for Fiscal Restraint. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe